Body Lab: Citizenship, science and culture wars

This session will share the results of Body Lab, a research project piloting the use of participatory theatre for consensus-building on contentious topics at KS4, Post-16 and undergraduate level. It aims to stimulate and invite discussion on the potential of this and similar experiences to promote positive citizenship and social tolerance in schools and universities. As a sixth-form leader and science teacher in a large state school I regularly ran student debates. Gradually I became unsettled by their polarising effect, and the tendency for students to be influenced more by group loyalty and the charisma and peer-group status of the speakers than by consideration of the issues. Time and again I watched them vote against democratic and pro-social values, and in support or torture, religious intolerance and restricting women’s rights. Today, the so-called ‘culture wars’ increasingly pervade our education, media and personal spaces, with public discourse often driven by power, celebrity and social media. Politicians and policy makers talk of the need for a ‘national debate’ on the topic of the day, but with no obvious way for this to happen. With many of the world’s challenges demanding societal transformation built on consensus, there is a cost to individuals, society and the planet of this divide of mutual misunderstanding, and a clear role for schools and universities as forums for the safe and open sharing of ideas. Is there an alternative model to the classic, adversarial school debate? One where success isn’t measured by ‘winning’ and which promotes positive engagement with difficult topics? Now a science communication lecturer at UWE Bristol, Body Lab is my attempt to answer that question. It offers a space where students work together within an immersive scenario to find a shared solution to a provocative challenge. It calls for pedagogies and practices that act to find common ground and grow our young people’s capacity for deliberation and collaboration. With an engaging and familiar dramatic framing inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, students choose from a range of body parts to build a human figure. Designing this life-sized puppet requires rich conversations on themes including gender, sex, race, ethnicity and disability. There are no ‘right’ answers, only what the group decides, with each event leading to a unique outcome in the form of the body they create together. This session will: •Outline the project’s aims and background, with a summary of its development and results to date (0-20 min). •Provide a demo and a chance to get hands-on with the puppet parts used in the project (20-40min). •Open a discussion on the potential for this approach for creating deliberative spaces for students to discuss controversial topics (40-55 min). Outcomes: •For the audience to consider the use of this and similar interdisciplinary and theatrical approaches for potential KS4 and Post-16 enrichment events, especially in relation to the interface between science and society. •To explore the opportunities and challenges of doing so.